The present disclosure relates to medical devices and more particularly to infusion pumps.
Infusion pumps or tubing pumps are used commonly to inject drugs or medicaments into a patient. Tubing pumps are relatively simple compared to diaphragm pumps. Also, tubing pumps operate directly with tubing and do not require operation with a disposable pumping cassette or flexible membrane. The disposable cost of a treatment is accordingly reduced. Moreover, the tubing is relatively simple to sterilize and keep sterile.
One problem with tubing pumps is accuracy. Volumetric control of peristaltic tubing pumps usually consists of counting a number of times that the pump roller is revolved against a tube loaded against a peristaltic pump race and assuming a volume for each revolution. The assumed volume is based on a internal volume of the tube that is contacted by the pump roller. One problem with the assumption is when the tube does not de-compress to its initial de-compressed shape after the pump roller has passed. This problem generally worsens over time as the pump tubing material becomes less and less resilient due to the persistent compression and decompression of the pump tubing.
A need accordingly exists to provide an infusion or tubing type medical fluid pump having increased accuracy.